ERIC Number: EJ1474893
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1461-3808
EISSN: EISSN-1469-9893
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Female Conservatoire Students' Voices Regarding Futures in the Male-Dominated World of Western Classical Music: The Communicative or Controlled Mirroring Pianist Body?
Cecilia Ferm Almqvist1; Carl Holmgren2
Music Education Research, v27 n3 p346-358 2025
Previous research has reported a multitude of problems related to gender equality in higher music education and the professional field of Western classical music over the last decades. This study aimed to understand female conservatory piano students' experiences of being and becoming musicians. Associative interviews with six students from three different European countries told their stories of studying the piano and their views of their futures as pianists and musicians in the male-dominated world of Western classical music. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed in a hermeneutical narrative manner using Frank's theory of bodily voices. The findings show how these students are situated towards and through conservatory studies, either cultivated towards control and body-relatedness or desire and other-relatedness, which seem to influence their views of possible futures. Finally, we offer suggestions for how conservatory education could enable and support students in responsibly developing their own musical futures.
Descriptors: Females, Gender Bias, Classical Music, Musical Instruments, Student Experience, Music Education, Musicians, Gender Issues, Educational Environment, Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Europe
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Music Education, Södertörn University, Huddinge, Sweden; 2Music Education, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden